The instant invention relates to a leg splitting machine for automatically effecting transverse severable knee joint separation of the lower and upper leg sections of a separated whole leg member of a small edible animal, and in particular poultry legs wherein the term poultry is used in a generic sense which would include but not necessarily be limited to old and young chickens, turkeys, ducks, and guineas. For simplicity in description and discussion of the invention hereof, however the particular poultry shown and referred to will be chicken.
It is further to be understood that the machine hereof may be employed separately but that the preferred use thereof in order to reduce handling and increase production efficiencies is in mechanically linked combination with a poultry leg/back processor generally of the type, but not necessarily limited to, that as shown and taught in presently pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 265,636 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,42) filed on May 20, 1981, by Eugene G. Martin, being a co-inventor herein.
At present, poultry processing operations and the machinery provided therefor evolve about the obtaining of an optimum balance between the capability and capacity for maximum net output and delivery of commercially and regulatory agency acceptable food product at a minimum labor cost factor. One of the controlling considerations as to both machinery and method in achieving an optimizing shift of balance to increased product output at a constant or reduced labor factor is whether or not the automated process method and machinery provided therefor is physically capable of handling the particular poultry section infeed component in a controlled manner at operational speed and effect section reducing cuts and dismemberment operations under controlled mechanical handling conditions to deliver reduced poultry pieces which are substantially free of either shattered or scraped bone fragment contamination.
Exemplary of modern methods and machinery provided to accomplish an optimum product output and labor factor balance as pertains to the instant invention disclosure would be that as taught by Hawk et al in their U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,335 dated Dec. 22, 1981, therein showing a machine having a part thereof adapted to receive the rear transverse bi-lateral halves of pre-sectioned poultry carcasses and thereafter reduce the same into smaller cut pieces by first severing the legs at the knee joints from the thighs and then longitudinally splitting the thighs for which purposes the Hawk et al machine employs rotating blade knife means.
Much of the handling control features provided by the machine of instant invention are obtained by the employment of an infeed assembly which embodies the use of filtered helix screw members in combination with guide and transfer bar means, the combined employment of which is not per se new in poultry processing operations since the functional features thereof in various structural combinations have been previously used to good advantage as taught by Barbour et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,514,809 dated June 2, 1980, by Taylor in U.S. Pat. No. 3,781,945 dated Jan. 1, 1974, and by Strandine et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,918,125 dated Nov. 11, 1975.
Some of the features of the instant invention have, in some respects, both structural and/or functional similarities to various of those teachings separately set forth in the prior art disclosures heretofor cited and briefly discussed. However, as will be hereinafter pointed out, the instant invention is distinguishable from said earlier inventions in one or more ways in that the present invention has utility features and new and useful advantages, applications, and improvements in the art of leg splitting machines not heretofore known.